Fleet Model 2, Plane/Jane Serial Number 75, NC8689 Lands at NASM

Dorothy Cochrane
Curator of General Aviation National Air and Space Museum cochraned@si.edu

scarf and settled himself in the front cockpit; Machamer hand-propped Plane/Jane and hopped into the back cockpit; they were off on its last flight.

Above: 17-year old Chet Machamer becomes the last student pilot to solo in Plane/Jane. Photo: Joyce K. Breiner

Early on the morning of Saturday, June 18, three very different pilots flew the 1929 Fleet Model 2 Plane/Jane on its last three flights prior to being donated to the Smithsonians National Air and Space Museum. At 17 years-old, Chet Machamer was the youngest pilot and he gratefully took the opportunity to be the last person to solo in Plane/Jane, a veteran of so many student solo flights, at Bermudian Valley Airpark, near East Berlin, Pennsylvania. Then Chets father, flight instructor and airline pilot John Machamer, joined him for the first leg of a delivery flight that would end at Dulles International Airport, Virginia, specifically at the Museums Become a Pilot Day. Each year the Museum hosts about 50 aircraft on the tarmac outside the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center where the general public strolls around, and sometimes gets into, everything from biplanes to military jets. Stopping at Frederick Municipal Airport, Maryland, the Fleet met its escort planes that would lead it through the Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA) around Washington, DC. Being a 1929 aircraft, the Fleet lacked not only a transponder but a radio too. But the most important addition to the entourage at Frederick was the senior pilot of the group, 85-year old Eugene Breiner. Breiner donned his soft leather helmet, goggles, and white silk

The Fleet 2 (and a Kinner cylinder) on short final at Dulles International Airport, Virginia, June 18, 2011. Each year NASM holds a fly-in for selected aircraft and their pilots who brave the Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA) around Washington, DC.
Photo: Joyce K. Breiner

This Fleet Model 2, serial number 75, was built at the Fleet Aircraft Company, of Buffalo, New York (solely owned by Major Fleet), on May 14, 1929 and became a basic trainer at the Roosevelt Aviation School, one of the leading civilian aviation schools in the U.S. in the 1930s. Between 1929 and 1942, hundreds of student pilots received instruction in this Fleet, now the only surviving one of ten owned and operated by Roosevelt Field, Inc., Long Island, New York. Of the approximately 350 Fleet 2s manufactured, it is one of only six surviving original Fleet 2s (many were converted into Fleet 7s). Zack Mosley, the creator of the comic strip SmilinJack, received dual instruction from Downwind Jackson (who became a character in the comic strip) and Mosley took his private pilot flight test in it. Former National Air and Space Museum curator Robert B. Meyer soloed in it at Roosevelt Field in 1939 and, 48 years later, Meyer flew it again at the Potomac Antique Aero Squadron Fly In at Horn Point, Maryland.
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NC8689 at Blue Swan Airport in Sayre, Pennsylvania, and tried to buy it, several times, but the owner would not sell because he intended to restore it himself. Finally, after the owner died, Breiner, by then an FAA Principal Airworthiness inspector, purchased it in 1979. Though parts were scattered around the area, he managed to collect about 90 percent of the original aircraft and began restoring it to its 1939 Roosevelt Field trainer configuration.

Plane/Jane airborne on its last flight. Photo: Mary Ellen Thompson

Designed by Major Reuben Fleet as a smaller version of the military PT-3 trainer, the compact and relatively inexpensive Fleet was the first aircraft specifically designed for the civilian flight training market. The Fleet Model 2 is a two-seat, dual control, open-cockpit biplane with a steel tube frame, spruce wing spars, aluminum ribs, and fabric-covering, and it sports a Kinner K5 110hp engine. The Taylor E-2, Piper J-2 and J-3, Aeronca C-3, and Cessna 140 followed in the 1930s but the Fleet continued to fill the gap between these smaller civilian trainers and heavier biplanes or sophisticated military trainers. The Fleet was also a popular sport aircraft; veteran pilot Paul Mantz set a record of 46 outside loops in one. When all civilian flight training was prohibited east of the Susquehanna River in 1942, Howard Ailor, founder of Aircraft Services Consolidated, bought this and five other Fleets from Roosevelt Field and moved them to Bloomsburg Airport, Bloomsburg, PA. Students continued to fly the Fleet as part of the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP), a government-funded instruction program created to encourage private flying, but also to create a pool of potential military pilots prior to and during World War II. The Fleet is the only aircraft in the Museums collection to have an official history with the CPTP. A number of owners operated the Fleet in Central Pennsylvania after the war but by 1950 the fabric would not pass inspection and it was stored in a northeastern Pennsylvania barn. In 1952, Breiner, owner of an aircraft maintenance shop, first saw the fuselage of
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Eugene Breiner s Fleet 2 Plane/Jane at Bermudian Valley Airpark, Pennsylvania; note its bright blue and yellow trainer colors and Roosevelt Field tail marking. Photo: Joyce K. Breiner

In 1985, Breiner returned his plain Jane aircraft to flying status; his sign painter recognized the play on words and christened it Plane/Jane. Breiner spent many summers performing at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, Cole Palens antique aircraft haven in Rhinebeck, New York, including flying in rings around a 1929 Standard biplane so those passenger could take pictures of the Fleet. Thanks to Breiners dedication and craftsmanship, Plane/Jane became an 18-time medal winner at fly-ins in the east. I first saw the Fleet at Horn Point, Maryland in 1987 and began a 24-year conversation with Gene about the aircraft. He wanted me to understand the importance of the Fleet in encouraging people to learn to fly and he took me up in it to show me its gentle flying characteristics. Last fall, I even got some stick time, flying with John Machamer over the bucolic farmland of south central Pennsylvania. Finally, on that beautiful June morning, Breiner and Machamer taxied up to the north end of the Udvar-Hazy Center where I was waiting along with the Director of the National Air and Space Museum, General Jack Dailey. Upon exiting Plane/Jane for the last time, Gene got down on his knees to kiss the ground (well, concrete) and thank the Lord for one last safe landing in the Fleet.

Above: Joyce and Gene Breiner sign the Fleet 2 over to General Jack Dailey, Director of the National Air and Space Museum.
Photo: National Air and Space Museum

Above: Pilots John Machamer (in rear seat, just out of picture) and Eugene Breiner taxi into the National Air and Space Museums Become a Pilot Day at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, June 18, 2011. Below: Plane/Jane reflected at the UdvarHazy Center. (Photos: National Air and Space Museum)

Above: George Levis, the spritely 101-year old at left, took instruction in NC8689 and later, as a Lycoming engine specialist, worked on Wiley Posts Lockheed Vega, Winnie Mae, which is displayed at the Udvar-Hazy Center; Gene Breiner is at right.
Photo: National Air and Space Museum

Above: Joyce Breiner hands over the registration to Dorothy Cochrane, Curator of General Aviation, with Gene Breiner.
Photo: National Air and Space Museum

A few hours later, Gene and his daughter Joyce donated Plane/Jane to the Museum, in the presence of the aircrafts other pilots of the day, John and Chet Machamer, the rest of the Breiner family, and the visitors enjoying Become a Pilot Day. A good and emotional time was had by all.

A super video by AOPA-Live of Gene Breiner talking about his Fleet can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC15ocgQlQU Next page: NC8689 in the October, 1939 ad in Aviation magazine for Roosevelt Aviation School. Smilin Jack cartoonist Zack Mosley learned to fly in this aircraft while record-setter Jacqueline Cochran also attended the school and trained in another Fleet 2.
Joyce K. Breiner

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